How do I identify Wulffite?

Wulffite can be identified by its hardness of 2.5 on the Mohs scale, Dark green with bluish hue or deep emerald-green. color. Look for these key characteristics when examining specimens.

What color is Wulffite?

Wulffite typically appears in Dark green with bluish hue or deep emerald-green.. Color can vary depending on impurities and formation conditions.

How hard is Wulffite?

Wulffite has a hardness of 2.5 on the Mohs scale. This makes it a soft mineral that can be scratched easily.

Wulffite

A variety of Minerals

What is Wulffite?

Wulffite is an alkali copper sulfate mineral with the chemical formula K3NaCu4O2(SO4)4, in the sulfate category of minerals. It was recently discovered in Kamchatka, Russia at the Tolbachik volcano in 2012. It was named for Russian crystallographer Georgiy Viktorovich Wulff, a renowned expert who furthered X-ray diffraction and interference. Wullfite shares many properties with parawulffite, which was found in the same area just with slightly different chemical composition.

Wulffite Market Value Calculator

Estimate the market value of Wulffite using size, quality, and finish. This preview calculator is for quick context and is not a formal appraisal.

Wulffite Localities Map

See where Wulffite is found with a localities map, collecting zones, and geology context. Generate a sample map preview below.

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North ZoneCentral RidgeSouth Basin

Key Characteristics

Characteristics of Wulffite

Wulffite is an exhalation mineral with its clear crystals being brittle with a Mohs hardness of just 2½. They form individually or in coarse clusters and crusts of elongated prismatic crystals reaching a maximum size of 2 mm long and 1.2 mm thick with groups of clusters stretching 1 cm across. Wulffite has two directions of perfect cleavage parallel to the positive elongation and another on the (010) direction. It also tends to fracture in a steeped pattern. The crystal colors take on being a dark emerald green to a bluish tinted green, dark green being the most common. The mineral has also shown strong optical phenomenon of pleochroism that absorbs light and changes the color from emerald green to pale green (Z dark emerald green > Y green > X pale green). All of the physical properties of wulffite can be contributed to the highly volcanic environment in which they formed and the amount of elements available for it to form at all.

Formation of Wulffite

Wulffite is a volcanic, or fumarolic, mineral which forms in or near volcanic activity. It has been recorded to associate with hematite, langbeinite, calciolangbeinite, arcanite, krasheninnikovite, lammerite, labberite-β, johillerite, bradaczekite, urusovite, fluoborite, gahnite, orthoclase, and fluorophlogopite. Wulffite has been found to reside about a meter down in between layers of basalt scoria and small 2-inch volcanic plutons, otherwise known as volcanic bombs, where most of the common chemicals are sulfates, arsenate, and oxides. Wulffite was found in abundance at the active monogenetic volcanic Arsenatnaya fumarole where the temperature ranged from 360-380 ºC where wulffite was found to mainly form, but with other nearby fumaroles reaching temperatures up to 430 ºC. The fumarole also showed through analysis that atmospheric air interacts with the fumarole, enriching it in H2O, HF, HCl, SO2, CO2. The Tolbachik volcano in Russia at 55º41´N 160º14´E, at an elevation of 1200 meters, is so far the only place to have wulffite occurring.